M3 - Merge Ministry Mostly
A behind-the-scenes look at camp and ministry leadership, told with humor and heart. This podcast offers honest conversations about Christian leadership in student and children’s ministry—sharing real wins, mistakes, growth moments, and the everyday joys and challenges of serving. With plenty of laughs and genuine passion, it’s where Christian leadership meets youth camp chaos—real, relatable, and rooted in purpose.
M3 - Merge Ministry Mostly
Overrated
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What are things we think are overrated and underrated? Join us as we talk about the church, movies, TV shows, and dad bods! Email us at mergeministries12@gmail.com to let us know if you agree, disagree, or topics you want to hear our underrated opinions about.
Last week, we talked about unpopular opinions. You got to see how we think, oddly enough, you probably disagreed more than you agreed with us. And today we're going to continue that trend as we look at things that we think are overrated and underrated. You're in for a treat today because there will be some that will leave you scratching your head and we might get an argument. Here we go. Welcome back to the M3 Podcast. I'm Daniel.
SPEAKER_03And I'm Luke.
SPEAKER_01And we are here again, as you just heard. Today we're diving into things we think are overrated and underrated. Underrated. We said last time, if you have things you would like for us to discuss, if you have opinions, or you just want to tell us how wrong we are, that works too. Or how right we are. Uh send us the email, merge ministries12 at gmail.com, and we will read your hate mail, your love mail, whatever mail you send us. Right now we don't have any mail. So there's no mail at all. Be the first person to be on the podcast.
SPEAKER_03Maybe we don't want to hear it. Right now we can just assume everything's great.
SPEAKER_01Yes, everybody likes us. Everything we do is wonderful. Overrated. We'll start. Hold on, hold on.
SPEAKER_03Before we jump into the overrated, we don't really know how this is actually working out, whether it's working or it's not. But the elephant in the room, this could quite possibly be the first time we're on video. If the video doesn't work and you're just hearing this, then you can it's safe to say obviously it didn't it didn't work, but we're trying, we're giving it a shot.
SPEAKER_01We are assuming if you see us never look towards the camera, we are assuming that it's not working. Once again, if you have any experience with bird dog cameras, we would love your help. Maybe we're getting close to the video. Are we supposed to look at the camera? I think so. I don't know. I don't think it's working from what I see on my end, it's not working. Uh well, maybe it is. I see movement, but it's been freezing. So maybe maybe you just got us there. Um, so we'll start easy and then we'll get into one topic that we'll hit probably midway through. I may hit it sooner just because I think it will be entertaining to say the least. All right, overrated TV show. We'll let you go first with your overrated TV show. Stranger Things. Praise the Lamb.
SPEAKER_03Overrated, man. I tried to watch it back like back when it first came out. And first of all, I know it's not like a scary TV show, like I get that, but anything that's related to what Stranger Things is, it's not my cup of tea anyway. So it's maybe not fair, but I what watching the show and like all the hype that it has, I just don't get it. I just don't get it. It's definitely overrated in my opinion.
SPEAKER_01I agree. Multiple people in my household, I think all but me and Colby maybe. She might have watched them. I don't know. Everybody's in my house has watched them. I just I just can't. Like, I can't get into it.
SPEAKER_03I don't think Joa liked it. We I think we tried to watch it together, and I was like, I listen, I'm done. Like, I ain't got no we typically watch shows together. There's sometimes that like she'll have a show that she watches that I don't just love that she watches by herself, but most of the time we watch TV together. We we did we both didn't last on that one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we have a hard time finishing series, finishing shows just because when you're busy, it's hard to actually sit down and well, I would like to blame it on that, but after about four or five episodes, I lose interest and Abby gets mad because I'm on to the next one, and we can't.
SPEAKER_03So my overrated, I would say I'm saying I get Abby being mad at about that. Not I get you being over, over you agree with her?
SPEAKER_01I agree with her. Uh my and I don't even I guess it's a TV show, Saturday Night Live. Never was a fan. I know now it's changed a lot, yeah. But even back in the day, uh when all the Adam Sandler's Will Farrell, all those guys were were on the show, it's just never something that I I got in. And I don't think I was allowed to watch it as a kid, probably. My my parents didn't let me just stay up till midnight and watch TV. But that kind of I I never have like the funny thing with Saturday Night Live is watching the the playbacks of when like they break character, yeah, and things go off script. I'm just not a big Saturday Night Live.
SPEAKER_03That's what I was gonna say. When I saw this, I thought, no, it's not overrated. Like, there's some really funny stuff that comes from it, but as a show, I've never seen an entire show ever. Yeah, I see clips right on social media, and like some of them hit, some of them don't. Like the Nate Bargatsy one, where he like all of his skits were hilarious. Like it made me go back and watch the whole show. Going back and watching the whole show, the ones that they put on social media are the funny ones. Other otherwise, it was like he's funny, but like the whole show, it's like this was not worth watching then the entire show. I feel so awkward like trying to look at the camera menu at the same time. I feel it's like my head is going back and forth, like I'm saying, um, um, um.
SPEAKER_01I don't think people's looking for us to engage with them. I was about to ask, is Saturday Night Live still airing, but I guess it is. Oh, it's definitely still airing. Is it? Wow, I don't know how. Okay, underrated. TV show? TV show. Uh psych. No, no, no. What's the answer? Psych. Get that?
SPEAKER_03I didn't at first. I literally said it. What do you talk about? Yeah, psych is definitely underrated. Now, it is one of those shows that the concept is a little bizarre, like the dude's psychic. He's not really, and he shows that in the very beginning. Like, you're in on the the stick, but uh shtick. I don't think I said shtick, right? I think I said stick. Anyway, my point is like it is so funny, and they they tie in like real world stuff into it. Uh it's it's hilarious to me.
SPEAKER_01Never saying it.
SPEAKER_03It's underrated. You should watch it. I guess so. I guess that's why it's underrated.
SPEAKER_01Mine, which it's uh oldie but a a good one. I've I don't watch many things over again. All the way through. Well, all the way through, but again, yeah. Like once I've seen it once, I don't like watching movies over again if I've already seen what is your generation called? Uh millennials?
SPEAKER_03Are you a millennial?
SPEAKER_01I don't know.
SPEAKER_03I'm a millennial.
SPEAKER_01Then I'm probably not.
SPEAKER_03No offense. My sister told me I'd call you old Geshe down here. But my Gen What's Gen Z?
SPEAKER_01I'm not Gen Z.
SPEAKER_03No, no, that's below me.
SPEAKER_01That's below you?
SPEAKER_03You'd be Gen X, maybe?
SPEAKER_01Maybe Gen X. I don't know.
SPEAKER_03Either way, a millennial thing is re-watching TV shows. Like I I saw this thing the other day that was saying, like, the way millennials deal with like stress and cope with stress and blah blah blah, is they just rewrite rewatch their shows that they love. And I was like, unfortunately, that fits me very well. So I must not do that. A bunch of shows all the way through several times. I don't want to name them because I feel like people would judge me.
SPEAKER_01Well, then we'll go on to my uh the TV show, actually. I said was West Wing.
SPEAKER_03That is a fantastic show.
SPEAKER_01It's a great show, and I've watched it probably three times all the way through.
SPEAKER_03There's a lot of seasons. It is, and they're long episodes.
SPEAKER_01They are.
SPEAKER_03It ain't like a sitcom where it's you know 24 minutes to get rid of all the ads, yeah, 21 minutes, whatever it is.
SPEAKER_01Yep. So that is a good one.
SPEAKER_03I want to disagree with you, but that's a good one.
SPEAKER_01That's a good one. I'll have to watch Psych and I've never heard of it.
SPEAKER_03So you don't like stupid funny, so you're probably not gonna like it. That's that's fair, but it is underrated uh gym.
SPEAKER_01It's underrated, stupid funny, yeah. Movies. I'll start with overrated, which kind of goes with the disagree.
SPEAKER_03The stupid funny, totally disagree. Napoleon dynamite, hilarious, not funny. When that man picks up that steak and smacks Napoleon in the face with it, it's so funny.
SPEAKER_00Not funny. I just I watch it and go, that's dumb. Tina, you fat lord, come get some dinner. That's hilarious.
SPEAKER_03Okay, I will say the first time I watched that movie. I know you don't you don't care and you didn't ask, but the first time I watched the movie, I like I didn't laugh. I have my expectations was like it was gonna be so funny. And I'm like watching it going, this is kind of dumb. And then so we watched the movie and then we're playing PlayStation. It's probably the PS2 back then. I don't even know what game we're playing, but the the lines are like come into my head, and I start saying them, like quoting them, and it got cracked up. And so then watching it a second time, it was hilarious to me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, y'all, y'all also, I say y'all, you and uh Johnny think I think Minecraft. Y'all thought Minecraft was funny.
SPEAKER_03I did not I didn't think it was near as funny as he did. Uh while we were watching it, I thought it was kind of dumb. There were some one-liners that were hilarious, but the concept as a whole, it was like we watched the Mario movie recently and I enjoyed it. Like it was a good movie, but the Minecraft movie, I it was like, this is stupid, but it was funny. No, I did think it was funny.
SPEAKER_01Napoleon Dynamite and Minecraft. Overrated.
SPEAKER_03So I got two for overrated.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I disagree. Believe it or not, I disagree.
SPEAKER_03Was we I turned it on and was like, what the heck is this?
SPEAKER_01Hamilton was well done. Like, for the guy to come up with all that and the way the story was told, I'm definitely not a musical kind of guy. Yeah, that was well done. I've said you being gangster rapper over there, I figured you would Luke.
SPEAKER_03You're gonna love this. You gotta watch it. It's it's a musical, but it's rap musical. Like, it's dude, you're gonna love it. And I turned it on, I was like, This is stupid. Like, I'm literally laughing at what, like, no, bro. No, now Alexander Hamilton's life, like I enjoyed, I couldn't even get through it, dude.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, I disagree with you on that.
SPEAKER_03My second overrated is Star Wars. Yeah, the first the first several movies why is it overrated? The first several movies did not come out in my lifetime. Okay, so I when you go back and watch movies like Ghostbusters, and I saw it for the first time in 2020 in the movie theater and was watching it going, how is there so much hype? It's a good movie, like it was good, I liked it, but it's like, how is there so much hype to this? And then I remembered like when it was created, and so like the graphics and right what they did with it was like it's mediocre. So to say that about Star Wars, like when it was created, I get like it was probably above and beyond anything that has ever been done at that time, but like the storyline of it all, it's just like bro, this is this is dumb. So when the the new movies started coming out, my brother-in-law loves it. Like Johnny loves Star Wars, so he was like, dude, you gotta watch the old one so that we can go watch the new one together. I think I got through two of them and was like, I don't even know what's happening. That was my problem. I was like, I want to. We talked last week about like what what movies we like in the genres, like the action in an action movie, you can miss some dialogue and still know what's going on, right? I I was so daggum lost, I didn't know what was happening, and then the way it was written, like the timeline was all jacked up, right? Yeah, a lot of probably movie critics thinking like it's genius, but if you look at Rotten Tomatoes, if it they say it's a good movie, Luke probably didn't like it.
SPEAKER_01Well, I will say a lot of people probably disagree with you because it's part of Disney, and if Disney puts it in their parks, it's probably because it's a hit.
SPEAKER_03Well, that's why Luke thinks it's overrated. It ain't I'm you can't say something's overrated if it's not rated well. Like everybody loves Star Wars. I literally went to talk to Johnny last night and he was watching one of the new Star Wars. Like so many people like it. That's why Luke thinks it's overrated.
SPEAKER_01That's right. I'm not like a huge Star Wars fan, like dying to see them, but when they come out, I watch them. I think they're entertaining. Underrated. Mine is Patch Adams. Anything with Robin Williams, I'm a fan of. And that was when I had to come up with some movie, so I just that's what I don't know. Most people probably don't know it or seen it. But it's a funny movie. He he pretends to be a doctor, or he is a doctor, but he's older, but he goes about being a doctor different. And the the things he does, the creative things he does, I just think was interesting and funny.
SPEAKER_03And I know it's like one of those it's on the list of like underrated movies you need to see. I've never seen it.
SPEAKER_01Is that really? Yep. Foreel. Look at me. I'd go to Hollywood. Um, yours, you this is not underrated. You you can't put this as underrated.
SPEAKER_03It's underrated.
SPEAKER_01Why? Because everybody is not everybody's favorite movie in the entire world.
SPEAKER_03It should be the number one all-time like grossing film, it should be the all-time most liked film. No, it is it is the greatest movie ever made.
SPEAKER_01If you ask somebody, name your top sports movies, this is in there. Like, it's not you can't that's that's my beef with it.
SPEAKER_03That's why it's underrated. It shouldn't be top sports movie, it should be top movie all time.
SPEAKER_01Remember the titans. No, the the it's not underrated ever made. Nobody watches Remember the Titans and goes, that's not a good movie, or that's not in the category.
SPEAKER_03They only put it in the category of good sports movie. It's just a good movie in general, but it's about sports, and it's about civil war, civil rights, not war. They go to the Gettysburg, you know, thing. Like, that's why I said civil war.
SPEAKER_01Civil War is mentioned in it. It's about dying or car wrecks, too. We're gonna put we're gonna put it in a car wreck. We're gonna put it in a car wreck category as well.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, every category, it should be number one. Uh wreck, civil war, civil rights, uh sports, football, football. I mean, whatever. It should be number one in all every category. Okay, there's not enough love that's given to the member of the Titans. And it's love, it's light, like it's it's up there.
SPEAKER_01It is, so it's not anyway, it's not enough. We're gonna go through this one just because pick out the categories, and I want to talk about this one briefly because most people are not gonna care. Athlete, overrated athlete, Jake Paul, LeBron James, LeBron James. Not a not a huge, I mean, not a LeBron fan. He's just I'm I grew up in the Michael Jordan era. He's the GOAT. LeBron is not, like, not getting into that debate.
SPEAKER_03But so before he started like talking, I really like him. I never just like his personality is like yeah, see he let me down, man. He let me down.
SPEAKER_01I'm taking my talents and all that stuff. Come on, man, go play basketball. Like, yes, use your stage to to do things and make a difference.
SPEAKER_03But like I feel the same way about Jake Paul.
SPEAKER_01Uh he's an athlete.
SPEAKER_03That's what they say.
SPEAKER_01Uh he's a showman, he's a boxer, man. I don't even I mean see, I wouldn't put him in that category either.
SPEAKER_03That's why I think he's over it.
SPEAKER_01I don't even know if he's rated. Rated as an athlete. Uh underrated, you go go ahead.
SPEAKER_03Underrated Fred Warner, man. He's the linebacker for the 49ers. He is he don't get enough credit.
SPEAKER_01Was he the one that got hurt this year? Didn't he? Was he? See, I knew that he's on the list. He's out there.
SPEAKER_03Because I said 49ers, just the name Fred Warner.
SPEAKER_01But I think that Greenlaw was Greenlaw uh is he on the team too? I see. One was one of them got hurt running onto the field one year. Was that Fred Warren? That wasn't Fred Warren. Okay. You may know who I'm talking about. Don't remember that. So it was like he was getting ready to go onto the field. I think they had a turnover or something, and he got ready to run onto the field and pulled a hammy, something like that. My underrated athlete, Daniel Cook.
SPEAKER_03I have heard multiple people say, Man, he's surprisingly athletic. It hurts his feelings every time.
SPEAKER_02However, he he is pretty darn athletic.
SPEAKER_01Because I look at it and go, What is surprising about like, why is that surprising? That uh I could shoot a basketball or kick a kickball. Like in my and I have such a dad bod that people look at me and go, that guy, you said it.
SPEAKER_00That guy is not gonna be able to run up and down this floor.
SPEAKER_03So the the the path at least comes in. Yeah, I think wow.
SPEAKER_01Oh wow, I just got put in that category.
SPEAKER_03I think it's straight up, yeah. That that's it.
SPEAKER_01Dang. I guess I need to go to the gym and lift some weights, or I mean, if I do that, then people look at me and go, oh, he's athletic because he's in better shape. Dang.
SPEAKER_02So all you dad bods out there, people don't think people don't think he looks athletic no more. They might say he looks strong, but athletic ain't what people call me no more.
SPEAKER_03Oh well, since we back in the day, maybe, but not now.
SPEAKER_01Since we both work in a church, we're gonna have some fun with this one. Church things that are overrated. I will start with bulletins. Nobody in the world of the church reads a bulletin, pays attention to what's in a bulletin, and definitely don't look at deadlines, time to sign up by. I don't even know why we make bulletins anymore. I I really question why we even do announcements. If your church does announcements, nobody pays attention to them.
SPEAKER_03So I had that on here and I took it off. The announcements was one of mine. I took it off. But not just the fact that you have announcements, but the super long announcements that it could have just been a text message or an email. It's like, why are we doing all that? I agree. I I agree in that it's not utilized in the way that it should be utilized. Like the information on there, people don't pay attention to it. So why are we doing it? However, at my church, if you run out of a bulletin, bro, like they we ran out of bulletins. And I'm like, okay, I ain't got nothing to do with no bulletin.
SPEAKER_01Like, what are you telling me? What you doing with it anyway? What they don't pay attention to them. I don't like the number of times people have come up in the history of working at a church and they say, Hey, I didn't know this was going on. How many times have you said it was in the bulletin? It was in the bulletin, it's been in the bulletin for a month, and then they're like, Well, we didn't know. And we and like, there's just you can do a video, you can do it on paper, they don't care. And then they get mad at the staff and go, Well, you didn't tell us.
SPEAKER_03I'm gonna I'm gonna give a shameless plug here to uh Columbus Fire and Safety. They don't come to our church, they don't be reading our bulletin. But unlike all of our people who we have tons of people call, when when's the pine wood derby? When is this going on? When is this happening? And it's been in the bulletin for four weeks now, like you're saying. Columbus Fire and Safety calls our pastor and says, Hey, do y'all need trophies for the Pinewood Derby this weekend? And so he calls me. This happened a few minutes. He calls me and he's like, Do we need the trophies? And I'm like, Yeah. Completely forgot to order those. He was like, Well, they call me. So shout out to Columbus Fire and Safety. If they need trophies or t-shirts or whatever, man, hit up Columbus Fire and Safety. And I'm sure they do fire and safety stuff too. They probably do fire and safety, but we're just really about to do that.
SPEAKER_00I don't know that part of it. I know the trophies and t-shirts.
SPEAKER_03All right.
SPEAKER_01Uh, what is your overrated church thing?
SPEAKER_03Uh, I got two. I'll start with I'll start with this one. Okay. Perfect Sunday services. Feeling like everything's gotta go perfectly smooth and transitions and all of that stuff. Like people just people don't care about it as much as like we put on it a lot of times. Like when I have uh if you've been around me, sometimes I laugh when I shouldn't. Sometimes I say more of what's going on in my brain than what I should say out loud. Like I should just keep it in as a thought. Um trip, you know, don't don't allow this lady to baptize her son, like all these things that I've done. And it makes people enjoy like the service. People can laugh with me. Uh they may be laughing at me too, but they can laugh with me when things don't go perfectly. And I think, you know, sometimes we get so caught up on the production side of things of like we can't have dead time. We can't have we can't have somebody walk up the steps and it be. Silent, like we need a video to play as they're coming up, and it's like nobody nobody cares about that. Like it's overrated to have a perfect Sunday service because what people want is us being real and being genuine and authentic.
SPEAKER_01Well, and most of the time, and it happens at with camp as well. If something does not go the way we planned, they don't know, literally nowhere. Nobody knows. Like if somebody comes on stage early or and we'll beat ourselves up about it. We will. We're like, dang, you how are you late? And they're like, nobody knows that.
SPEAKER_03I I can't tell you how many times I've asked. Like, so when before Johnny was on staff, he was like chaperone for a couple years. And I'd be like, Hey man, what did you think about this? And he was like, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm like, So I mean, this this happened, and it was supposed to be like this.
SPEAKER_02He was like, I didn't know that. I thought it went the way it was supposed to go. I'm like, Oh great.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, even when you're at camp, we had a guy who was doing a teaching and completely walked out and taught at the complete wrong time. And everybody that knows is just sitting there looking like, What are you doing?
SPEAKER_03I I was on the in the very back at the uh like sound booth, computer booth, or whatever, and I'm going, I've been trying to get his attention. What are you doing? Get off the stage. He literally interrupted the other guy, but if you're in the audience, it seemed like that's what was that's what was supposed to happen. Now, thankfully, Matt Law was on stage and not me. Because I probably would have froze and be like, bro, what are you doing? You're not like I ain't done. Why are you up here? But yeah, Matt Law just rolled with his. Like he didn't he didn't make it awkward at all. It was great. All right, what's your other thing? My other thing is church hurt, man. I think there's things that happen that are problems, and you know, people they need to be dealt with, but it there's other phrases that we could put into like church lingo that is is an issue, right? You know, like it's overrated to say we we we like to just throw that word around church hurt because we had an unfortunate circumstance or thing that took place in the church, and a lot of times we're not even dealing with the thing, we just leave saying, How dare they like now?
SPEAKER_01So before we keep we keep going with this, I'll preference this with there are things that happen in the church that should not happen that cause damage, right? But a lot of church hurt is well, they didn't call me back, or I was missing and they didn't check on me one week, like and then we're hurt by the church, and it's like no, like yes, sometimes people do things and pastors drop the ball and like things don't work out, right? Like at some point you gotta look at people and go, really? Like that look that's what we're getting right about.
SPEAKER_03Even even with some of the bigger things, like pastors behaving in a way that they shouldn't, right? Right, even with some of those kinds of things that I can honestly say, man, I've I was I was hurt by the church. Like that ain't the way it's actually used, you know what I mean? And I ain't hurt by the church. I'm I disagree and I'm disappointed with what this dude did and the way he you know what I mean. It's like there there are things that take place and things that happen where people are humans and people don't act and respond the way that they should, you know. But what I mean when I'm saying church hurt is the way it's used so often as just a cop-out for I didn't like this, and instead of dealing with it, I just left. Right. And I blame the church for the things that took place. So I I agree with you in that there's there's things that literally actually actually happen that are that are problems, and and it might even mean you should leave this church.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_03Right. I obviously there's you're not tied to or stuck to any any one place, but throwing that around as if it's it's the the common thing, right? Like yeah, it you you you might have experienced something that was difficult, but what we should be seeking is reconciliation, right? Like we could we should restore these relationships, even if that means we're parting ways. Yeah, like though this ain't gonna work. So I mean throwing around church hurt over you you didn't call me and it because I and I went I wasn't here for two weeks, you didn't call me. Like that that that thing goes both ways, right? You know, and does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01It does. Uh and I think there's there's two sides, like I think some church hurt that people want to label as church hurt is not church hurt. Right. I think they just like to talk about it and blame somebody for something we've both experienced what you could call church hurt. Yeah, uh I had a I almost had a physical church hurt. Um had a a deacon. This guy was a dad at the time and wanted his child to go to the older kids' class because they were smarter, they learned different, they didn't need to be with the younger kids because they were so much smarter and all this stuff. Well, I told him no. I was like, no, we have things set up. You don't go into the school until the school, hey, my kids smarter than the rest of these first graders, put them in fourth grade. Uh so we had a conversation. I it I didn't think it was anything wrong with the conversation. I just said, no, this is not the way it's going to go. We're in the elevator, coming down the elevator, and the guy's a deacon, and he looks at me and he says, I want to punch you in the face. And I said they're like, What? All because I told your and told you that you couldn't take your child to whatever class you wanted to. You're a deacon and you look at a staff member and tell them you want to punch them in the face. And I'm like, Wow. So, you know, you deal with things, right? So I went to the pastor at the time and was like, Hey, this happened, like, and he's like, Okay.
SPEAKER_00What do you want? It's like, what?
SPEAKER_01Like, we're gonna let that happen. Um, but it's almost church hurt is becoming a thing we're throwing around, and like everybody has church hurt, it seems to me. Everybody's got it. Like, we need a card or a tattoo of church hurt so people know do podcast on church hurt. Like, no, like, yes, churches mess up sometimes, and this is but but at some point we gotta move on from that. At some point we gotta call it, we gotta deal with it. If so you have been hurt by the church, deal with it, or something's going on, deal with it. But not every church is bad, not every pastor is wrong. So you got hurt at one place, you go to the next place, and then you carry that with you into the next church. So at some point, there are churches, and I know a lot of them that do things right. Yeah, so deal with whatever hurt you have, and uh let's uh move on.
SPEAKER_03My wife shared this with me about three years ago, and it has stuck with me, and it applies in this situation, and it applies pretty much universally in life. Everything ain't about you, you know, everything in your life is not about you, and so sometimes while that while we're talking and claiming church hurt, most of the time both parties are at fault in some way. Yeah, most of the time it's not completely unwarranted, you know what I mean? There's there's something that happens that we both have our own thoughts and our own feelings, and we're both right, we both believe that we're right, and that's how we get into these situations. And like there's a lot of times in our life that what we need to do is Gary Soha's wife used to say, build a bridge and get over it, you know. Like there's things that we yeah, we gotta deal with it.
SPEAKER_00If we got that on video, he literally built a bridge and got over it.
SPEAKER_03That's what she do. And I I remember seeing that when I was young, when Haley's playing golf, and I'm like, bro, I'm gonna use that. And you did, and I do, I use it all the time. But with that, like there are things that if the more we talk about it, the more we we think about these these things and how awful they are, it's hard to overcome those things, but there's a lot of things that takes place in our life that sucks us up, you know. Right, let's move on. Well, and like I said, and again, that might mean you move you move on, you go somewhere else and you find a church that does do it right, like I'm saying. But at the same time, it don't mean we bash every every church that hasn't gone perfectly, right?
SPEAKER_01And we walk away from our relationship with Jesus because of church hurt, yeah. Like anyway, we that may be a episode for another day. So uh my underrated nursery workers. Oh, no doubt, bro. You don't think about a nursery worker, try to have a kid service one time. If you don't have kids in your thing, try to have a kid uh family service to where all the kids are in there, not just not just the grade school kids, all everybody, everybody, babies to sixth grade, yeah. Folks won't be coming to church. They're like, nope, I ain't taking my six-month-old in there because they might cry or burp or something. And when you don't have nursery workers, a very underrated part of the church is nursery workers.
SPEAKER_03This isn't the one I had on the list, but uh from your conversation made me just made me think about it. But having babies in the service, like around your your your service is underrated, in my opinion. Like people want to be uh frustrated, like shut that baby up, you know, like why is this baby crying? But like that is the the growth of your church, like you want to have a church in 20 years, you better have some babies, and uh don't get me wrong, when I have babies in the service, I was like, get out of here, you know, telling my wife, like, go, go, go, he's making a noise. Like, I get it, you know. But at the same time, it's it's a wonderful thing to hear a baby cry in the service because that means we got we got a future. Yeah, we got a future. That's what I think about. Yeah, uh, but my my uh underrated thing was having a real authentic pastor, having the leader of your church that is genuine, he's can just be himself and loves the the the members well. Like I I think we not not in the church hurt sense, but in that like polished sense. We we want to have all these things so perfectly done. And if you got a guy that can stand up on stage and just be himself, whether he's on the stage or in the fellowship hall or on the soccer field, like you just get him. Yeah, man, that's that's few and far between. Like it's a rare thing that uh I think is the way it should be. Right.
SPEAKER_01Well, and part of that too is the congregation, like, are they putting him on such a high pedestal that he don't feel like he can be himself? Right. And like he has to be this. And coming in, and I'm sure my kids have probably dealt with it more than they have ever told me. But they're like, You're you live in a glass house and people is gonna judge your kids and this and that. Sometimes I appreciate like my kids are out like the other day, Levi was driving and somebody saw him on his phone, so they called us and was like, Hey, he was driving and on his phone. Uh, so that kind of stuff, yeah. Fantastic. Appreciate that. But I've I don't have people, and maybe like I said, could have conversations and I didn't never hear about it, but nobody's ever come up to me and went, hey, your child's a pastor's kid and they're out doing whatever. Yeah. Now they might have thought that and it never got back to me. Um, but the people we have been around, the the church people, like there's never been that over highly like pressure for them or me to be something I'm not. Right. Like we gotta have all our stuff together and we can't like get mad or our kids can't mess up. So so I think that if you can get in a church and that's the mindset and the attitude, then that allows the pastor to yeah to not feel that way. But there are also then some pastors that are in those situations and they're like, This is me, you got me. Yeah, you may not like it, and I may not be here much longer, but for a little bit, I am what I am I am here.
SPEAKER_03I like I like to say that that phrase a good bit. So look, man, I am what I am. Like I I'm gonna be me. I that I don't it's very obvious if I if I try to put on a front or be somebody that I'm not. I was like, I that's all I can do, man. I can just be me. That's all I can be.
SPEAKER_01Uh so shout out to the nursery workers, shout out to the authentic pastors out there. If you can find one and they love Jesus, hang on to them. Uh we need to rapid fire the rest of these, or yeah, we can restaurant overrated.
SPEAKER_03We'll just go raising canes, man. That place is trash.
SPEAKER_01I agree. Raising canes is no good. I don't I don't buy the hype. For me, Olive Garden, which I don't preference that with I don't like Italian food. But definitely like family. Who?
SPEAKER_03Olive Garden.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like they don't cook their food very good. They treat you like family, they're like getting it.
SPEAKER_04Bubba's in the kitchen.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, not sure what he's cooking today, or the quality of what we're putting out is uh like family. Starbucks to me, I do like coffee, but I'm not a big there's nothing at Starbucks that wows me.
SPEAKER_03I ain't gonna say there's nothing. There's a couple things I drink. And if if you said, hey, I'm going to Starbucks, you want something? I'm probably gonna say yeah.
SPEAKER_01But I'm probably just gonna get a black coffee.
SPEAKER_03But I mean, yeah, it ain't it's definitely overrated.
SPEAKER_01You're extra. Uh no doubt. Underrated.
SPEAKER_03Waffle House, man. There are so many people. I know you're gonna say Waffle House ain't overrated. Underrated because people love Waffle House. There's a lot of people that are like my wife that think it's gross and it it's nasty, so I'm not eating in there. But brother, if you would just taste it, you know me, it wouldn't care what the floor looks like or what's happening behind the counter. Yeah, uh, my also you don't see behind the counter in so many other restaurants, you don't know how gross it is.
SPEAKER_01That's true. This is my underrated steak and shake. You can kind of see behind the counter, they got good fries, a good burger, and probably one of those places that ain't the cleanest all the time, but just give it a shot and go for it. Uh overrated things. There's just any random act. I don't know why I've put things. We're just now just sharing food.
SPEAKER_02Food, man.
SPEAKER_01Uh my uh chapstick, it's a scam.
SPEAKER_03I agree with that.
SPEAKER_01I never, I don't say never, typically don't use chapstick. We went to Conclave and we gave out chapstick and I started using chapstick.
SPEAKER_03Um then you felt like I gotta have chapstick.
SPEAKER_01Well, it dried my lips out, and I was like, Well crap, now I gotta keep using this chapstick. I agree, it's a scam. It's a scam. Uh overrate, underrated uh thing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03A good book bag, man. Oh my what? It's hard, it's hard to to beat a good book bag. It's gotta have a little bit of structure to it, gotta have multiple pockets. Uh yeah, and just any old book bag gonna do for me. A good book bag is underrated.
SPEAKER_01Oh, a good book bag. All right. Other things, uh, we'll go up to the right above that. I don't know a underrated thing. I don't know. Uh overrated luxury or loaded out vehicles, luxury cars, like cars that have like massages and the seats and all this kind of stuff. Like you're going from five minutes down the road most days. Like you're not if you're traveling cross-country, then we that's different conversation. But for the most people to get a loaded out vehicle is makes no sense to me.
SPEAKER_03Brother, I completely agree, and my wife's got one of those. I totally agree. My truck and her car look very different.
SPEAKER_01Uh so I don't get it.
SPEAKER_03My overrated thing is crocs, man. I don't get the hype of it. I got a pair and I wear them. I wear them, they're convenient. But how like kids today just love them, yeah. I don't get it. Like I think it's a lazy to have a little a little pair of slippers I can wear anywhere, like, great, that's good. But an everyday shoe, nah, bro.
SPEAKER_01I think it's uh they don't have to tie them, they can slip them on and off. Like I think it's more of a convenient thing. I don't have a pair of crocs, but uh underrated minivans. Best, if you have a family, you need a minivan. I still drive our minivan because it's got 186,000 miles on it. I'm gonna drive it till the wheels fall off. I'm sure my unathletic looking dad bod driving around a minivan is probably not doing me any favors. But man, when we had kids like you slide open the doors, they jump in the back. You probably can find some food underneath the seat from last week in case you get hungry. Watch out for the bottles that might have been laying in there for a week, too. Don't want to drink those, but dude, I love a minivan, brother.
SPEAKER_03You ain't gonna get no you know, flack from me. I I drove a minivan for about a six, four or five month period in in high school, and they used to rag me for driving the minivan. But after school, they wanted to go eat. They all be in the minivan. They tied in the minivan. That's right. I agree, underrated. Uh, this is probably one of those extra things about me. Uh, I know that I am an extra human being. Very uh, but lamp lighting over like overhead lighting, like in my office that added me some lamps, uh like I had back in the day, you know? Yeah, yeah. I enjoy the lamps over straight overhead lighting any any day. Yeah, I could if you got the right lamps and it like in in my house, we don't have lamps, but we just have like windows and we don't have any blinds over them in the living room, and so like the natural lighting I like. Then when it gets dark, I'd rather sit in the dark with the TV on than have the lights on. Like every time my sister-in-law comes in our house and we like we'll be sitting there chilling. We may just be talking, but we got the lights off. She comes in and flips the light on. I'm like, turn it back off. Like I don't I don't want the lights on.
SPEAKER_01That's uh Abby will wake up in the mornings and turn all the lights on. She's like, Why are y'all sitting in the dark? And I'm like, Because why why we turn the lights on? Uh so well, that's just a few things. Uh there was one other one I left it blank because I don't know. I couldn't think of it. I couldn't think of Bible story or character that's overrated.
SPEAKER_03Really hard to come up with one of those. I came up with Jonah just because uh in the end of the story, he still had a sour attitude. And like he he did what he wasn't supposed to do, got redeemed, and then didn't what did what God said, but then was like mad about it, right?
SPEAKER_01Even still, and then don't this don't it ends like just uh with a question or something, and then it's like what the heck? Yeah, uh, okay.
SPEAKER_03Uh so other than that, like I can't think of a story that you say this guy's overrated. Like, yeah, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Maybe that's against the Bible. Maybe you shouldn't say that.
SPEAKER_03That's what the other thing I was thinking is is this can we say they gotta be important? Everybody is, yeah. Underrated. I have Barnabas, man. I really like Barnabas in the Bible. He's kind of a minor low-key character.
SPEAKER_00When I when I first read that, and the reason I brought it up because when I read that, I read it as Barabbas. Yeah, Barabbas is underrated. Barabbas, you're underrating my man. But no, that's that's Barney.
SPEAKER_03But not uh he's underrated. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01All right, we'll end on that note. Um, so if you have things you would like, if you agree, disagree, or there's topics that we did not cover that you would like to hear our opinion on, because our opinion is right up there. Probably underrated is our opinion. No, no doubt. On things. No doubt. So if you want to hear more of our opinions, the more people should. So like, share, comment, check out our webpage, merge-ministries.com, find out about camps, how to donate, how to support the ministry. Merge ministries 12 at gmail.com is our email. Send us an email, we'll read it on the air. Who's gonna be the first person? They get us their email read. Uh, so if you send something bad or something mean, I'm gonna read it. We're gonna read it. We are gonna read it, and we are gonna say your name. So just be ready for that. So we hope you have a great week. We'll be back next week. Our opinion definitely underrated. K-bye.